Innovation from Spectre Screws

WHEN it comes to woodscrews – or even fastenings in general – we have a bewildering choice nowadays.

The cordless drill driver and modern woodscrews have made what was a chore into a simple job with, usually, much better results than we could have expected 20 years ago, writes PETER BRETT.

Who drills pilot holes these days? Or who greases screws before twisting them in with a big screwdriver like we used to?

The Spectre USPs

The new Spectre screws are labelled as Advanced Multi-Purpose Woodscrews, so are aimed at jobbing builders, joiners, carpenters and others. They need a good product at a good price, when a premium screw is not required.

FORGEFIX carefully chose the features most needed for general users and, based on my experience of using woodscrews in a variety of applications, the design is pretty well spot on.

Starting with the quick-start type 17 slash point, it is very sharp so getting a good start is almost as easy as just pushing it into the wood where you need the screw to be.

In addition to the cut out to clear the starting hole quickly, the first few mm of the thread has a small sawtooth that literally cuts its way through the wood and helps prevent splitting.

I tried the screws close to the edges of both hard and softwood, and it is not an idle claim.

Brian Trevaskiss, Marketing Manager at FORGEFIX, said: "Users don’t have to open the box, they just need to offer up their sample screw to the scale to compare.

" This is simple stuff – but no-one else has thought of this before. I am sure retailers will love it.

"There is also the option to purchase larger quantity boxes of the most popular sizes that represent a 10% saving on the equivalent normal size boxes.

"As for the screws – yes, they work well. They are anti-corrosion coated, and come in 48 sizes with, as mentioned above, options for bulk trade boxes.

Point of sale display

FORGEFIX is to be commended for coming up with a few excellent ideas to help end users (and even shop counter staff) to choose the right size screws.

This will also help with the annoying problem of finding clumsily opened boxes half full of screws on a display - usually the result of a customer trying to find exactly the length and gauge of the screw they want.

The new bright yellow and black boxes have the size and gauge of the screws written in big letters (even without my glasses I can read them) on one side of the box.

On the other side is an actual size representation of the head, so the user will know what size and type of driver to use. Below it is a centimetre scale with the screw imposed on it.